Fairytale
by ElizaMitchell
Summary: This bedtime story may seem vaguely familiar. Fluffy AU.
1. Fairytale

"Daddy, can you tell me a bedtime story?"

Pleading, hopeful brown eyes met his as Tony tucked his daughter into bed that night.

"Sure, baby girl." He pulled the covers over her and joined her on the bed. "Which one did you want to hear?"

"A new one! Not one I've heard a zillion times before."

"A new one, huh? A'right..." He scratched the side of his face thoughtfully as his mind worked to conjure up a tale on the spot for the little girl. His Madelyn loved her fairytales; he just loved the smile on her face when he told them to her. His life at the moment was better than any fairytale he could attempt to dream up, really. "Let's see... Once upon a time, there was a very beautiful princess... and a... knight."

"I think I know this one."

He shook his head, a smirk forming on his face. "Nah, I don't think you do. See, the princess and the knight, their jobs were to protect the kingdom."

"Princesses do that?"

He nodded. "This one did. But one day, the bad guys captured the princess."

"Oh no! Did the knight save her?"

"Yeah. Yeah, he did." Tony paused. "But he had to do some bad things to get her back."

"What bad things?"

It wasn't the knight's finest moment any more than it was Tony's favorite part of

the story to tell. "He... He had to lie to people. Good guys."

"That's not nice."

"No. It's not. He didn't want to... He just didn't have another choice." He decided to omit the part where the bad guys point a sword at the princess and threaten to take her eye out for this age-appropriate version.

Maddie looked thoughtful. "Why didn't he just ask the good guys to help him get her back?"

Every now and then, he found himself caught off guard by the perceptiveness of his only daughter—especially when she came to the same conclusions her mother did. Through and through, she was his little Michelle, and that was never made more clear than in these moments.

"Well... What if they said no?" he reasoned. "I think he was too afraid of losing her to trust anybody else."

She seemed to accept his logic. "So then what happened?"

"They locked him up in the dungeon."

"The good guys?"

"Yeah."

Her little eyebrows furrowed, showing her obvious disapproval of the decision. "Did he escape?"

"Nah, he was let out after a little while."

"By who?"

He was seriously starting to doubt his ability to tell the story in simple terms. "By, uh, by the king."

"The princess's dad?"

"No, no. Different king. He..." Was honorable, just, stoic, courageous, had essentially freed him from hell and was unarguably his favorite president in history, with an essence that was impossible to sum up in a tale this simplistic. He stripped this down to the basics. "This king had special powers."

"Like a wizard?"

"Yeah... Yeah, something like that."

Her attention quickly shifted back to the love story element. "Was the princess waiting for the knight when they let him out of the dungeon?"

He grinned. "Yeah, she was. She was there."

"Did she kiss him 'cause he was her hero and then they lived happily ever after?"

"Almost."

Only then did Maddie's bright smile wane. "Why almost?"

He sighed. "Because the knight was... sad."

"Why was he sad? The dungeon wasn't very fun?"

"Right. And he wasn't allowed to defend the kingdom anymore. He had to go find a different job."

"What job?"

"Nothing, he didn't get one. He was too busy feeling sorry for himself."

"Oh." Her face fell. "Poor knight. What about the princess?"

"She still had her job."

"She was fighting bad guys without him?"

"Uh-huh."

"That musta made him sad. He prob'ly felt left out," she suspected. "Then what happened?"

"She went away."

"The princess? Did the bad guys take her again?"

He shook his head. "No, it wasn't like that. Not this time."

"Was the sad knight making her sad, too? So she ran away?"

He chuckled softly at her desperation for answers and his own difficulty to get a word in edgewise. "Yeah, you could say that."

"How did he get her to come back?"

His Maddie. The eternal optimist.

"How do you know she came back?"

"Because she loves him," she answered matter-of-factly. "That's how fairytales work."

"Ahh. So it wouldn't be a very good fairytale if they just left each other alone?"

"'Course not, silly, they belong together," she giggled. "So what did he do?"

"Actually, one of the good guys called the knight for help—"

"Didn't they throw him in the dungeon?"

"The good guys? Yeah, they did. But the one that called him for help was his friend," Tony explained. "He talked the wizard into letting the knight out of the dungeon."

"Oh. Was his friend a knight, too?"

"Yeah. The best knight there was, really. So then the first knight—"

"The hero."

"Sure, the hero-knight, had to work with the princess again to protect the kingdom after he hadn't seen her in a long time."

"How long?"

"Too long. But this time the bad guys got the knight instead."

"Didn't he have a sword?"

"Yeah, he did, but he gave it to the bad guy to save one of the good guys."

She clucked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. "He shouldn't have done that. Never give swords to bad guys."

"You know what, you're right. That was a bad idea. Anyway, the bad guy tied up the knight and..." He searched his brain for ways to make the whole story less complicated. "The bad guy told the princess to do what she said or she would hurt the knight."

"The bad guy was a _she_?"

"Oh, yeah. I guess she was a bad _girl_, then, huh?"

"I hope she got a time-out for that."

He laughed. "She got a long one, don't worry. So now the princess wanted to save the knight like he saved her, but she was too good to lie to the good guys. So she told the good guys what happened..." He explained the story slowly, making sure she understood, "and they helped her save the knight."

"And the bad girl didn't hurt him?"

"Nah, not too bad."

"So the princess was a hero, too."

"Yeah," he agreed. "She was."

"And they both weren't sad anymore. Then what?"

"And _then_ they lived happily ever after."

"Did they get married?" she asked eagerly.

He smiled wider. "Yes they did."

"Did they have a baby?"

He chuckled. "Uh-huh, they did that too."

"A baby princess?"

"Mm, first they had a prince, I guess, and _then_ they had a princess."

She squealed softly before remembering her baby brother was asleep across the hall. She lowered her voice. "Was she pretty?"

He was sincere in his answer. "The prettiest of all."

"And when she grew up, she saved the kingdom, too?"

"Story doesn't go that far," he said simply, dropping a quick kiss on her nose. "But I think she'll do whatever she wants to do."

Maddie yawned and tucked herself back under the covers. "So that's the end of the story?"

"Nope." He caught movement out of the corner of his eye and turned to see his wife smiling at them from the doorway. "Just the beginning."


	2. Sequel

"Baby, what's the matter? Why are we so upset?"

Her 18-month-old had started blubbering the second she'd placed him in his crib for the night, and it was making Michelle more than a little uneasy. Her littlest boy hadn't been himself all day. His usual big appetite had diminished significantly, and he lacked the energy that would normally tend to drive her crazy. The only thing he'd wanted to do was stay on her hip all day, and Tony hadn't been able to make him giggle even once, despite his tireless efforts. There had been tears the one time she was able to get him down for a nap, but now he was absolutely miserable.

She reached in and pulled him back out of the crib, rubbing his back soothingly as he sobbed into her shoulder. "Shh, it's okay, honey. Mommy's still here. Shhhh." Once he calmed down, she gently brushed the tears from his face. "You're not feeling very good, are you, buddy?" He reached his little arms out and encircled her neck, pressing his cheek against her chest and making it clear that he did not plan on releasing her any time soon. "Aww, baby." She smoothed her hand over his soft, brown hair. It was when he did things like this that he had her completely at his disposal. "All right, you can stay up and help me put your sister to bed, how's that? But then Mommy and Mason both need to sleep."

He seemed to relax a little as she carried him across the hall to Madelyn's room where her daughter was already in her pajamas and ready for bed. "Hey, sweetheart, did you brush your teeth already?"

"Yep! See?" She flashed her pearly whites and scooted over to make room for her mother and brother on the bed.

"Wow, look how shiny." Michelle situated Mason so he was sitting on her lap, propped up against her.

"What's wrong with Mase? Why isn't he sleeping?"

"He's not feeling very well."

"Poor baby." She pressed a very audible kiss to her little brother's cheek. "The bedtime story will make him feel better."

"Hmm, I bet you're right. Which one do you want?"

"The one with the princess and the knight."

"The princess and the knight... Do I know that one?"

She shrugged. "Daddy does."

"Daddy told you that one? Do you remember how it goes?"

Maddie stroked her brother's bare foot as he watched her intently. "I think so."

"How about you tell the story then? Since I haven't heard it before."

"I don't think Mason's heard it either. Okay, I'll tell it. Once upon a time there was a princess and a knight. The princess helps the knight protect the kingdom 'cause that's just the kind of princess she is. Not the normal kind. Then the bad girl—no, the bad _guys _'cause the bad girl isn't 'til later. The bad guys catch the princess and make the knight lie to the good guys to save her. Then they lock the knight up in the dungeon—that's not good 'cause the dungeon's for bad guys only." She paused, forehead scrunched in concentration. "Then the wizard let the knight out of the dungeon and the princess kissed him and said, '_my hero_!' and then they almost lived happily ever after."

A knowing grin formed on Michelle's face. "They _almost_ did?"

"Yeah, they didn't yet because the knight was sad 'cause he had to get a new job but he didn't want to and then the princess got sad 'cause he was sad so she went away! But then there were lots of bad guys in the kingdom and the other knights needed help so the hero-knight had to fight bad guys with the princess again until the bad girl tied him up. Never give swords to bad guys! Bad idea."

Michelle had to fight the urge to giggle. "I'll keep that in mind. Was the knight okay?"

"Yeah, the bad girl told the princess to lie but she said, 'No way, I don't listen to bad guys,' so the good guys helped her rescue the knight from the bad girl and he wasn't hurt very bad and then they lived happily ever after and got married and had a baby prince and a baby princess and that's the end of the story only not really 'cause Daddy doesn't know the rest of it." She took a deep breath exaggeratedly as if she'd been holding it the entire time.

Michelle chuckled at her exasperated little girl. "Wow, that was a lot to remember. I think that just might be the best story I've ever heard," she praised.

Maddie seemed pleased. "They're both heroes, right?"

"I... I don't know, sweetie, what do you think?"

"I think they are 'cause they saved each other."

"Mmm, I don't know about that princess, though," she reasoned, smirking. "She really didn't do much, did she?"

"Yeah she did. She helped the good guys get the knight back."

"Is that what Daddy told you?"

"Yep. And she didn't lie to the good guys even though the bad girl was gonna hurt the knight. That was brave."

"Was that brave or was it just the right thing to do?"

"Doing the right thing is brave. Right?"

She was wise beyond her years, that girl. Michelle opened her mouth to answer when her husband appeared in the doorway.

"Came to say goodnight to my favorite daughter."

Maddie giggled, rolling her eyes. "Daaaaddy, I'm your _only_ daughter."

"What? Really?" He grinned and kissed her forehead. "You're the best daughter in the world, then."

Five minutes later Tony and Michelle were standing outside their middle child's bedroom door. She raised her eyebrows at her husband.

"The princess and the knight, huh?"

He mock gasped. "Don't tell me you've never heard that one."

"Mm, you know, it sounded a little familiar."

He pulled her in for a kiss and stroked Mason's chubby cheek. "It's a classic, Michelle."


End file.
